You Need A Better Grow Light
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If you think about it, you only need a few elements to grow plants; earth, fire, water, and air. (Thanks Aang.) Earth being soil, fire is light, water is, well water, and lastly air (yes, plants breathe too). It’s easy to get three of those four elements, even indoors. But the quality of indoor grow lights is crucial for the success of growing plants indoors, as they are the primary source of light for photosynthesis in the absence of natural sunlight.
In this article, we are going to learn about, yep you called it, indoor grow lights.
What you’ll learn:
- Why the quality of your grow lights is so important
- What to avoid
- What to look for
- How to properly use grow lights
I’ve needed some new lights for a long time. I finally pulled the trigger and it has made ALL the difference. Why did it take so long? Well, that’s kind of a long story.
If you’ve been following our journey, you know that the old lights are now at the police department. They were confiscated. Long story, we’ll get to that one day. (I’m innocent, I swear!)
My current lights were basically free. That’s why I have them, that’s why they’re here. But my lighting issues, they’ve now been solved.
Why Grow Light Quality Is So Important:
Here are the top 3 reasons why you need a high-quality grow light for indoor gardening:
1. Correct Light Spectrum for Plant Growth: High-quality grow lights provide the proper light spectrum needed for each stage of a plant’s growth. Plants require different wavelengths of light for various stages, such as blue light for vegetative growth and red light for flowering and fruiting. A quality grow light delivers a balanced spectrum, ensuring your plants get the right type of light for healthy development.
2. Optimal Light Intensity and Distribution: Proper light intensity is critical for photosynthesis and healthy plant growth. High-quality grow lights offer consistent and sufficient PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density), ensuring your plants receive the right amount of light without hotspots or dark spots. This uniform distribution ensures all plants in the grow area receive equal light, promoting even growth.
3. Energy Efficiency and Durability: Quality grow lights, especially LED systems, are more energy-efficient and durable than cheaper alternatives. They use less electricity while providing higher output, saving on energy costs. Additionally, they have a longer lifespan, reducing the need for frequent replacements and offering better value over time.
What To Avoid In Grow Lights:
Take a look at my old lights. They call them blurple lights because they’re like a bluish purple kind of light.
You know it’s a blurple light because you can see all the different colors and spectrums going on. It’s not white, it’s a fake white. It’s trying to take a lot of different colors and turn it into white. That is a sign you have a cheap light.
Another sign you have a cheap light is it makes noise. Lights shouldn’t have fans. Having a fan in a light reduces efficiency and uses more power.
The newer, more modern LED lights are so efficient, they use so much less power that simple passive cooling with a heat sink is able to take care of all your cooling problems.
What To Look For In Grow Lights:
There used to be quite a bit of variety when it came to LED grow lights, but at this point that variety is shrinking. Everybody’s using the same Samsung LEDs. The drivers and efficiencies are all very similar.
“So what is the difference now? What should I look for?” you ask.
The two things I look for at this point when purchasing an LED grow light are:
- That they are using all those modern parts. Make sure there are no fans and no blurple lights, like what we saw above.
- Good customer service. You have to be able to get a hold of these manufacturers, or whomever you bought it from, in case there’s an issue. No matter how great a product is, there’s always a small percentage chance that something is gonna go wrong.
So, good customer service is what it’s about. I’ve had really good experience with HLG, Horticultural Lighting Group, in the past. Another company I’ve been working with is B-Lite. I haven’t had an issue yet with one of them, so I haven’t had to call customer service. Good sign. But so far, the interactions that I’ve had with this company have been excellent.
You can find both of these lights here at Garden Labs, the best online gardening store out there. Everyone involved at Garden Labs is a pro, and products are carefully selected to be quality, affordable, ethically sourced and tested. We only carry products we use ourselves, and we are here for you along the way during any phase of your growing journey. We make it easy.
How To Properly Use A Grow Light:
The hardest part about installing any grow light is just physically getting it up. They’re not light.
But they are lights. (Sorry, ignore my dad-jokes.)
In most of the instructions that come with good, modern grow lights, it says “greater than or equal to six inches above the canopy.” I am going to have to agree with that wholeheartedly. You actually want to have them pretty high up, and the dimmer all the way down to start with. Then, and only then, can you go up from there.
The truth is, most people are over lighting everything. They have way too much light. And that’s the issue that they see when they switch to LED. They don’t realize that these things are freaking bright!
So, set those bad boys to the minimum for now. They’ll probably stay that way for most of the time. When the plants get larger, you can bring it up from there.
I hope this info can help your plants and garden thrive. For a deeper dive, here’s a short video below:
Please ask any questions in the comment section below, we’re here to help.
Thank you for hanging out, and never stop growing!
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